Happy Birthday, Joshua!!!

Yesterday was Joshua's birthday (I know that's obvious from the post title, but meh)! I can't believe we have a one-year-old. It's so strange. Anyway, we had a little mini-party for him that evening, and Aunt Kirsti and Uncle Rich were kind enough to come over and help us out with taking pictures and stuff. I think he felt pretty well-celebrated! He got a Learn & Groove Musical Table (thanks for your suggestions, everyone!) and three pairs of shoes (he was in desperate need)...not a ton of stuff, but he didn't really seem to care anyway. It took him forever to get into the cake itself, but once he did, he had a grand old time, as evidenced by the picture--which is probably one of my favorite pictures of him ever. Thanks, Aunt Kirsti, for taking it! I've posted a ton of pictures over on our website, so go there to see more of the action. Happy Birthday, Joshua! We are so grateful you came into our lives one year ago, and we hope many many more years lay ahead of you!

We also took videos, and I now know how to post them. I know, I know, it's about time. There are quite a few, so we split them up. Feel free to browse through them as you so desire. The first one is of opening his first present with Daddy:

We switched places for the next present. Make sure you watch the end, as he really starts to get excited about his present. =)

And finally, here's the birthday cake! We tried to get him to blow out the candle himself, but 1) he wasn't really cooperating and 2) even if he had, a bunch of spit probably would have come out as well, and we didn't really think Kirsti and Rich would have liked Joshua spit on the cake. But it's still cute!

Sad news...There is one more video of him doing the cake smashing (which took a lot of coaxing and prodding, but he eventually gave in...who can't resist chocolate?), but it's too big to upload here. You'll have to be satisfied with the pictures on our website, and if you want to see the video, come visit us and we can show it to you! =)

It's almost Joshua's birthday...

First of all, for those who aren't already aware, Joshua turns the big 0-1 this Thursday! I can't believe it's been almost an entire year since he came into our lives. My little guy is growing up...*sniff sniff* In case anybody is interested, we're going to have a little mini-party, cake included, that night around 6:30. If you'd like to show up, we'd love to have you! But please let me know if you're coming so we can make sure we have enough cake. Just email me or leave a comment.

And now, pictures! I know it's been awhile since I've posted pictures of him. The first two were taken at a Christmas dinner we had with some of my old roommates. Joshua just happened to be wearing overalls and playing with the plastic fishing pole and accompanying fish that my mom got him for his birthday (they're bath toys), and I saw this hat lying around (also courtesy of Grandma), so I put it on him and Cody ran for the camera. This could have been a Halloween costume, don't you think?And here's our Christmas tree. We decided to get a real one for the last time, and hopefully there will be some artificial ones on sale after Christmas (we're looking forward to a pre-lit one!):Here's Cody and Joshua during our ward Christmas breakfast yesterday morning. I was really trying to get Joshua to smile, but...silly kid. He had a great time crawling around the back of the cultural hall while about five other kids walked around him. You could almost see him thinking, "Someday I'll be able to walk around like them!" He does walk a little, as I think I've mentioned before, but I think he might have been a little intimidated yesterday. And he can only do about 8-10 steps at a time before he topples over. He's getting the hang of it, though. Now that we have our video camera fixed, I should post some videos...hopefully soon!

On a sad side note, unfortunately Cody was let go from his job at Target on Friday night. He showed up, all ready to work, and for some reason he wasn't on the schedule...after talking to the team leader, he found out they had let him go (without even telling him!), apparently because they hired too many people for the holidays. It was a big blow, as now we're looking at an even slimmer Christmas, but at least we'll have him home for sure on days like Christmas Eve. Just please keep us in your prayers--money is extremely tight, as I'm sure it is for everyone!

Our New Car!!!

There it is, our new car. It's a 2007 Toyota Camry, with about 36,000 miles on it, CD player, keyless entry/alarm, cruise control, and plenty of leg room. We got a great deal on it. We had to drive up to this place in Bountiful to get it, but it was worth it. The only hard part about the whole thing is that now we have a monthly car payment...but hey, it'll be worth it! Yay!

I was on the radio!!!

I always listen to Christmas music while I'm at work...since I don't have any decorations up in my office and I have no windows to look outside at the (nonexistent thus far) snow, it helps me remember that it really is December and Christmas really is only two weeks away (holy cows! I need to do some shopping!). Anyway, for those of you who are not familiar with Utah radio, FM100 plays continuous Christmas music starting November 1st (although I haven't been listening to it since then, don't worry). So, when I got to work this morning and started up the Christmas music, I heard something about sending an email to enter some contest. I didn't even hear what it was for, but I figured, hey, why not?

Seriously, less than five minutes after I sent my email, I got a phone call..."Hi, this is Brian and Rebecca from FM100's morning show!" Aaack! I was totally taken off guard. They joked about me working in an engineering department and asked me if I knew how to make a diamond, to which I told them I didn't but maybe someone in my department did. Come to find out, I had won their "Diamond Days" contest, meaning I got two tickets to Neil Diamond's concert in SLC next Friday night, plus a $100 gift certificate to Morgan Jewelers! I have to drive up to Salt Lake to pick it all up, but hey, that's fine with me. And then about 5-10 minutes later, I heard myself on the radio. So surreal. I'm famous! (sorta)

So, anybody want some Neil Diamond tickets? =P

Needing ideas...

Cody and I just realized this morning that 1) Joshua's birthday is in two weeks and 2) Christmas is in three weeks. There's a lot to do before those two events! We promised ourselves when Joshua was born that we would do our best to keep his birthday separate from Christmas, so even though he won't remember this birthday, it has to be a special occasion. I'm looking for ideas--what kind of presents should we get for him? I've heard some say that we should get him stuff for him to play with now for his birthday, and get stuff for an 18-24 month old for Christmas. That way, we can save the Christmas presents and bring them out during the summertime. We may do that...I haven't talked to Cody about it yet, though, so we'll see.

That being said, what kinds of things do you get for a child between the ages of 12 and 24 months? To give you an idea of where he's at developmentally, he just started walking, babbles constantly, loves climbing onto things (a very recent development), and seems to have a 2-minute max attention span (I know that will change soon, though). I think we have plenty of clothes for him for now...I would get clothes for him for next summer, but the stores don't really have those out in December yet, so we'll have to wait on that. I'm thinking books and toys, but what? I've been thinking about getting this table. Apparently it should still be interesting to him until he's 2 or 3, so I'm hoping it's a good investment. Or would it be better to get a bunch of little toys? All of you experienced mommies out there, please give me your ideas! And anybody else that wants to chime in as well, please do so, of course...your opinions are just as valid =) Thanks in advance!

Fun with Family...and other things

Well, they came and they left...my parents, that is. They drove in from California last Wednesday, and they left this morning. It was so good to have them here. We had a wonderful time. We hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house on Thursday--we had 9 people: Cody, Joshua, and me (of course), my mom and dad, my sister Kirsti and her husband Rich, my sister Brianne, Rich's brother Rob, and Cody's grandpa (his grandma would have come but she got sick that morning, sadly). That's a lot of people to cook for! But I'm happy to say it all turned out most amazingly, and we still have tons of leftovers.

Friday and Saturday, Cody and I went car shopping. Not much success, sad to say. We're still waiting to hear from a dealer about whether or not they could find a bank to finance us for the car we selected...apparently our financial history and current status aren't being very kind to us right now. We're not sure what the next step is, but hopefully we can find something soon because we need to return the car to Cody's grandparents...

Joshua is totally walking now--he started really walking over the weekend, and he can go about 8-10 steps at once now. It's amazing to watch! He's started clapping, too, and he loves smiling and laughing with people. We really should be better about taking pictures, but we'll just have to get copies of the ones that my dad and Rich/Kirsti took with their cameras. I'll have to post later.

Anyway, there's not much else to report right now, but I just wanted to let you all know that we're still alive and well, that we're still looking for a new car, and that we're excited for Christmas to finally be here! I love this season!

The Lord works in mysterious ways...

Life is a funny thing, you know? One day you're headed in one direction, and then the next you're looking at completely different options and facing some big decisions that you didn't think you'd be facing for several years yet. What's going on, you ask? Well, to put it short: our little car has died, and we are looking for a replacement. The story is what's the best, though, so here you go:

On Saturday, we decided it was about time to get an oil change for our car. It had been four months and almost 5,000 miles since the last one, so it was definitely time. We decided we'd head out to the local Jiffy Lube, get the oil changed, and then swing by Walmart on the way home to pick up diapers (we only had one left in the house) and a few other things. The "oil change" (reason for quotation marks to be explained shortly) took about half an hour, so by 1:30pm we were heading down 800 North in Orem. We had only traveled about two and a half blocks from the Jiffy Lube when Cody noticed the car wasn't accelerating anymore, and then, all of a sudden, it died. We coasted to a stop on the side of the road, and immediately the thought came: Oh, no. Any attempts to start it back up again were futile. Cody popped the hood and started checking things, but couldn't really tell what happened.

So, we called Jiffy Lube and told them we had just left their facility and our car wouldn't start. They said they'd send someone to check it out. This started about two hours worth of us waiting for personnel from Jiffy Lube and trying to figure out what happened and what we should do with our car. One of the workers that came to inspect it said he couldn't be sure, but that it looked like the engine had seized up. Ouch. But how could that happen, we wondered? They just put oil in the car! And that's when we thought...wouldn't it be funny if they had flushed the oil tank but failed to put more in? The JL manager eventually came and started taking pictures to "document the situation." It was then that we realized that this was probably not going to end up being our expense. Unfortunately, no car repair shops were open on a Saturday, so we had the car towed to a shop that promised to look at it first thing Monday morning. Luckily, we had Joshua's stroller in the trunk, so we walked home (stopping by Macey's to get diapers) and got there just in time to watch the horrible BYU-Utah game. Cody's grandparents were kind enough to bring their spare car to us, so we were not left without means of transportation.

Monday morning came, and the mechanic gave us the official report: the engine had seized, and it was next to impossible that it would have happened if there had been sufficient oil in the car. A manager from JL was talking to the mechanic, and while they didn't come right out and say it, we knew that it was their fault for failing to replace the oil. It took all day for them to finally propose a solution: they'd either pay for the expense of fixing the car, or give us $2000 and we could do what we wanted with the car. We took the second option, since we didn't feel like anyone should pour even more money into that piece of junk. So, we will soon have $2000 and will be in the market for a new car, and our little Kia will sit out in front of our house for the time being. Like I said initially, the Lord works in mysterious ways! This car has caused us so much grief in the past couple of years, and we had already decided it probably wouldn't make another trip from Utah to California. We just put almost $1000 into it when it broke down in Vegas in August, and we had bought four new tires in the past three months. It's time for it to rest. And now we get to car shop! I've never done this before...the Kia is the only car I've ever owned, and I bought it from my brother just after I got home from my mission. This will definitely be an interesting experience.

Oh, and some pictures for your viewing pleasure. The first is Cody and Joshua in front of our broken-down car, around 570 West and 800 North in Orem, Utah. We sat out here for about 2 and a half hours. What a fun afternoon!This next picture is of Joshua sitting in the driver's seat. He was actually pretty happy until right before I took this picture, when it became evident that he had had enough of "driving." I doubt he'll be so upset to be behind the wheel in about 15 years...Anyway, that's what's been going on with the Allemans. We are so grateful to Cody's grandparents for having an extra car that we can borrow while we shop for a car! We're hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year, so it would have been really hard to get all the necessary dinner items if we didn't have a car. And hopefully some sales are going on right now. Rumor has it that with the economy the way it is, cars aren't selling so well, so maybe they'll be more than willing to let us qualify for a loan on a nice car =) We'll post pictures of our new car as soon as we can find one!

Tagged yet again!

Well, I've been tagged again...my good friend Amy in Riverside, CA tagged me in this game of photo tag. It works like this:
1. Go to your pictures file on your computer
2. Go to the 4th file
3. Go to the 4th picture
4. Post the picture and tell the story behind it
5. Tag 4 more people

Okay, here's my picture (I cheated, though--I'm on my work computer, and the fourth file on my computer is from the engineering career fair in 2006. Not very interesting. I do have a file that has all of my pictures in it, though, so I first went to that one, then to the fourth file in that file, and then the fourth picture...you get the idea):

This, obviously, is me and Cody. It was taken at Wendy and Paul Weitzel's wedding reception in...American Fork, I think...on May 6, 2006. At this point, we had known each other for just over six months and had been officially dating again for about a month (for those who don't know, we had a period of non-dating for about two months early in 2006). There's not much background to this picture, to be honest. Wendy and Paul are our good friends, and it was awesome to have been a part of their special day. This day is special to us, though, too...it was after we went home from this reception that we started seriously thinking about our own relationship and if marriage was in our future. That night, we decided to fast and pray about it (how convenient that the next day was Fast Sunday!) and the answer came: Go for it! We didn't officially get engaged until over a month later (it took the ring awhile to get ready, Cody wanted to ask my dad, etc.), but I guess you could say we technically got engaged the day after this picture was taken--or at least that we knew we wanted to marry each other within 24 hours of this picture. And that's that story =)

I now tag: Shara, Mickelle, Tiffany, and Melanie! And anybody else that is interested (hey, I already cheated once, so I might as well do it again =P)!

Only one month left of official babyhood...

I can't believe we're only one month away from Joshua's birthday. That's right, he's already 11 months old! Just to think, a year ago I was worrying about hosting Thanksgiving at our house while being almost 8 months pregnant...and this year we're hosting it again, although now we have an active, babbling, beautiful baby boy. Our lives have changed so much since Joshua was born (understandably), and it's weird to think that, just 11 months ago, we had no idea how much we would grow to love this little person. He zips around the house quite speedily--he crawls like a pro. He waves, too, and then he'll reach out to give you a high five. No real words yet, though like I said before, he babbles constantly, making some of the most adorable little sounds we've ever heard. He hasn't taken off with the walking yet, but almost every day he takes a few steps unassisted. I wonder if he's cautious about it because he's tall, and the ground is farther away for him if he falls =P. And he's finally got enough hair that we can do silly things with it! This is what his daddy did to him after his bath on Sunday night. Yeah, our son is going to be so trendy...(hopefully you all can see the irony of that statement, as Cody and I are probably some of the least trendy people on the planet). Anyway, I just wanted to give this brief little tribute to my now 11-month-old son, and now I've gotta go to bed so I can wake up in the morning and go to the gym. Have a good night!

Finally, a video! (not a very good one, but still a video!)

So, my new phone is being silly and won't connect to our home computer, so I haven't been able to download (upload?) any of the videos I've taken with it since we got them in June. There's also a size limit on video clips that my phone can send as a text message--they have to be under 14 seconds long, and most of my videos are longer than that. Plus, our regular video camera is on the fritz and is waiting for us to take it in to be fixed, which we really need to do before the holidays. Anyway, so Cody was playing peekaboo with Joshua from behind the couch yesterday, and I managed to take a very quick video of them both...very cute. Enjoy!

Two steps...

So, I've been thinking all week about posting about the results of the election and my reaction to it, about Prop 8 and all the mess that's happened in California since Tuesday...but I don't feel like I have the energy anymore. I'm tired of defending myself, tired of being called names, tired of feeling like I need some justification for being true to my beliefs. So I'm just going to ignore all of that and focus on something much more exciting:

Joshua took two steps last night!

I was sitting on the couch and Cody was kneeling on the floor a few steps away, and I steadied Joshua (he can stand on his own for a little bit), and he took two steps forward and fell into Cody's arms. They were very unsteady steps, of course, but they were still steps. We tried to get him to do it again back and forth between us, but he seemed to get tired of it. I know he's not going to take off running quite yet, but it's still so amazing to see him finally walk on his own! We're going to keep working with him to help him develop this new talent (it really is a talent to balance on two feet--ever thought about it that way?), and maybe he'll be walking around the house by his birthday next month.

Thanks for letting me share! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Happy Halloween!

So, I've never really been one of those people that goes all out for Halloween...but I was extra-excited this year. Why? Because of Joshua, of course! Holidays seem so much more fun and special when children are involved. We originally weren't going to dress Joshua up, but we saw costumes on sale at Walmart and decided it was worth it for the pictures. I know many are anxious to see them, so I won't leave you hanging. But first of all, check out our jack-o-lanters (ten points to whoever can guess Cody's):
And here is our little lion! Isn't he adorable?
And this last one--instead of putting the candy, Joshua put the wrapper in his mouth. This is me trying to fish it out:
Oh, and funny story: Joshua and I sat outside on the front porch to wait for trick-or-treaters, and I let Joshua crawl around a little. As a woman and her costumed son were approaching our driveway, I heard the woman say, "That's not real! Oh, wait...that's a baby!" Apparently she saw Joshua crawling around and thought he was a toy! I guess his crawling just looked too methodical or something? But I assured her he is quite real and she said he looked very cute. We got a lot of comments on his costume. Don't you think he makes quite the darling little lion cub? =)

Too hot to handle...

First and foremost, thank you everyone for your prayers for Cody's financial aid appeal! It has been accepted pending a meeting with a financial aid counselor. But before he does that, he needs to officially change his major over to the business school (he's decided to become a paralegal, for those who didn't know) and figure out if they'll still let him go for an associate degree or if he needs to do the bachelor program. His first meeting is this afternoon, so we'll keep you posted! Yay, he's going back to school!

Joshua got sick over the weekend =( He had seemed fine for the majority of it, but soon after church on Sunday, I noticed he started feeling quite warm to the touch. Cody had to work that day (he only has to work one Sunday a month, which is nice--and he got to go to church with us, which was even nicer), so Kirsti and Rich came over to have dinner with me and play games. Joshua had seemed pretty lethargic and a lot more cuddly than usual all afternoon, laying his head on my shoulder and being very clingy to his mommy. I had stripped him down to his diaper, but he was still super warm. I finally took his temperature around 6:30, and it was 102.6. No wonder he was so hot! I called the pediatrician's office and they made an appointment for 7:30 that night. It's a good thing Kirsti and Rich were there, because they were able to drive to Target and bring back the car so I could take Joshua in (thanks so much, guys!). Our game night was cut short, but they did manage to make us some awesome stir-fry =).

Luckily, Joshua didn't have an ear infection or strep throat or anything. The pediatrician on call said it looked like it was just a virus, and that all we could do was keep him on Tylenol and Motrin and give him lots and lots of fluids. He slept a lot all evening and the next day (I stayed home from work all day Monday and Tuesday morning, since I am the source of his fluids, after all), and his fever finally seemed to break yesterday morning. His temperature is still a little elevated, but he'll be fine. He's a lot more fussy than usual now, though--I think it's because he finally has the energy to cry. He was such a good little trooper during the worst of it, smiling at the doctor and just laying there quietly as I rocked him and kept a cool washcloth on his back. Now that the fever has gone down, I think he still doesn't feel well so he fusses and cries a lot. But I'm so glad he's on the mend!

Yesterday and today are pretty special days for us...yesterday marked three years since Cody and I met and had our first date, and five years ago today I entered the CTM (Centro de Treinamento Missionário) in São Paulo, Brazil. Both of these days bring back so many memories...

On October 29, 2003, I remember arriving in the São Paulo-Guarulhos Interntaional Airport after an overnight flight from Atlanta, Georgia, going through customs, taking a bus through the crazy traffic-filled streets on our way to Casa Verde, entering the CTM, getting a companion (if she reads this, Hi, Sister McMurdie!), moving in, meeting our district (44-A--five of us going to Brasília and four going to Belo Horizonte), eating our first Brazilian meal (kind of), and finally crashing for the night. My mission changed my life. I'm so grateful for that time and for the things I learned, and I'm eager to pass on those memories to my children.

On October 28, 2005, just about six months after returning home from that mission, I went on a blind date with a man named Cody Alleman. We had texted back and forth a few times since he had asked me out via email earlier that week (for those that don't know, we met through an online social network called ldslinkup), and we found out we only lived about five minutes from each other. I had gone to a BYU soccer game that night, and he came to pick me up afterwards. We ended up getting tickets to an after-midnight showing of The Brothers Grimm at Movies 8, had shakes from the Malt Shoppe, played Yahtzee in his apartment, and went to the movie, where Cody boldly held my hand and definitely showed me he was interested in me. The months after that are unlike any I've ever known, and I'm so grateful to know that, now, I am married to this man who treats me like a queen and is a wonderful daddy to our son.

Anyway, I'm just rambling now, so...here's a cute picture to end this post. I believe I took it on my way to go get groceries one night, or maybe before leaving for work one day...sorry for the poor quality (once again, gotta love cell phone pictures). For those that haven't been to our house, the stairs lead down to our front door, because we live on the top floor of a duplex:I just love that little guy. And the big guy. The two most important men in my life =)

10 months old!

Joshua turned 10 months old on Saturday...I can't even believe that we're in the double digits already. Only two short months until he's a year! Time passes so quickly. He still brings us as much joy as ever, of course, and every new day is a blessing. I'm so grateful to be his mom. I don't get as much time with him as I would like, but the sacrifice is worth it to make sure he has food, clothing, and a roof over his head. We've been blessed that friends and family have given us old toys and things that he loves, so we haven't had to buy much in that department! We don't get a lot of family time anymore, seeing as how Cody is working at Target some evenings, but that only means that the time we do get together is precious. We just love being a family and seeing our son grow up and learn things about the world around him!

Like I said before, Cody is now working evenings at Target (about 20-30 hours a week--seasonal employment), so that will bring in some much-needed income as we struggle to meet all of our expenses. Still waiting to hear about the appeal, but we're hoping he'll be taking classes next semester and on his way to that degree. I'm still working my two jobs, and while I miss seeing my husband every evening, I'm loving the one-on-one time with Joshua. It's kind of a preview of what it will be like to be a stay-at-home mom, I think. I can see how it could get boring, but the only time I'm really bored is after Joshua's in bed, and as long as I have some transcription work to do, that helps the time pass by more quickly.

It's getting colder and darker as winter approaches...this morning it seemed a lot darker than usual, and Joshua had a hard time opening his eyes when we turned the lights on--it was too bright! We did get some winter clothes for him, so hopefully he'll be toasty-warm once the snows arrive. I'm excited to see him play in the snow soon...

Anyway, that's pretty much what's going on with us right now. We're just plugging along, doing all that we can, and praying that the Lord blesses us according to our efforts. We appreciate everyone's well-wishes and prayers in our behalf, and please know that, while we may not always remember to pray for you by name, you are still loved and we hope that you feel the love the Lord has for you as well!

Life goes on...

Things have been crazy at work the last few weeks...I was in charge of a banquet for all of the alumni of BYU Chemical Engineering, and as you can imagine, I had a lot to do to get ready for it. Well, it was last Friday, so I'm now free! Yay! And now I can get back to posting pictures of our adorable son =) For starters, here is Joshua sitting by his daddy, who was trying to nail the cable cord around the door frame so it wasn't running across the floor and inviting Joshua to play with it. Joshua seemed very interested in what his daddy was doing. I'm sure he'll be a great helper around the house when he gets older: Here is one of the rare times when I let Joshua play with my cell phone. He loves cell phones, of course, because Mommy and Daddy use them all the time so they MUST be fun to play with: Doesn't he look all grown up in a hoodie and jeans? We can't leave him in a onesie anymore due to the recent cold spell around here...:
Here is a picture from the banquet...Joshua had ripped off my nametag, so Cody thought it would be funny to put it on Joshua's head:
And then he wrote "Product of" on the nametag as well...yeah, Cody is quite silly sometimes:
Just as an update, Joshua is now VERY adept at crawling and crawls all over the place, eats at least two solid meals a day (we're trying to incorporate a third), pulls himself up on everything and can even stand alone for about 5 seconds before toppling over, has four teeth and is working on a couple more, and babbles constantly. He sometimes says "Mum mum mum" when he wants me to pick him up, which of course I take to mean he knows my name. My little baby is growing up so fast! He'll be 10 months old on Saturday...

Now that the banquet is over, I'm ready to start planning things for the ACERC Annual Conference, which will be in February. I'm still busy busy busy, working both my day job and doing transcription, and I still definitely wish that I could be home with Joshua. Cody starts his new job with Target tomorrow night, though, so I'll no longer be the sole breadwinner, which I'm very excited about. Everybody please keep Cody in your prayers--he's in the process of appealing to get financial aid so he can take classes next semester, and we're hoping it goes through so he can be on his way to getting that degree. Thanks for reading!

Some much-needed outside activity

On Saturday, we decided that Joshua needed to go to the park. I think it was more along the lines of me feeling like we never do anything outside and realizing that, come winter, it would be much harder to justify going outside...anyway, I brought it up and Cody agreed that we all needed some outside time, so we headed to a park near our house. Joshua seemed to be a little bewildered by the swing and didn't like the slides at ALL (as evidenced by the pictures below), but he seemed to enjoy sitting on the grass. We only stayed for about half an hour, but it seemed to satisfy him (and us). Of course, we took pictures! Here's our cutie:
And later on that night, Joshua and I went to meet up with Kirsti to watch the Relief Society Broadcast. Cody apparently thought Joshua was adorable in his new outfit, so he took a picture:Yeah, our son is just so photogenic. Of course, I'm not biased in any way. Not me...

Joshua is 9 months old...and I'm playing catch-up

Okay, so things keep happening and I want to talk about them on my blog, but then I realize that I still haven't updated on our Florida trip and all the fun that's happened since then, so I keep pushing things back and now I'm over a month behind again. Sigh. So sorry! I'll start with this past weekend and then write another post about the Florida trip, which will be below this one, for anyone who cares to read about that.

For starters, Joshua is now a happy, healthy 9-month-old, weighing in at 21 lbs 9.5 oz and measuring 30 inches long. I think he's going to be tall and skinny like his daddy. At his appointment on Friday, the pediatrician even commented that Joshua is the first 9-month-old he's seen in several months that hasn't cried or fussed or anything during the appointment. He just sat there, giving weird looks to the doctor when he used the stethoscope and allowing himself to be poked and prodded. I'm glad he's so patient with everything!

At his appointment, the doctor told us Joshua can eat almost anything that we eat, with the exception of things like cow's milk, citrus fruits, honey, and a few other things. This opens up a whole new world of opportunities! We went to dinner at Tucano's on Friday night (had a coupon due to Cody's birthday) and gave Joshua bites of almost everything, from bananas to cottage cheese to beans to pao de queijo...he has yet to absolutely refuse any food, so I guess that's good!

We went to the BYU-Wyoming football game on Saturday--the tickets were Cody's birthday present from me. It looked like it might rain, so we brought jackets just in case, but it ended up being hot and sunny...we have the sunburns to prove it (even Joshua! I'm a terrible mother for not bringing sunscreen--at least Joshua hasn't seemed to mind it at all). But the game was super fun! We shut out yet another team, and are now 4-0 and #11 in the polls! Go BYU! Here are a couple of pictures of Joshua from the game...we forgot to bring a hat, so I detached the hood from my jacket and we put it over Joshua's head to keep him from getting a sunburn. It worked well (until he pulled it off, of course):
Cody was so sweet to carry Joshua around in the Baby Bjorn almost all day...I had the diaper bag, which probably weighs almost as much as Joshua does, so we shared the load =). Whew, I think we're fully current now! Thanks for checking in!

Florida...and our trip back to Utah =\

Finally, here's the update on our trip to Florida. Before I begin, I must give a disclaimer: I really don't mean for it to sound like I'm complaining that we had a horrible trip. We just had a lot (LOT LOT LOT) of mishaps that all combined together to really wear on us and make us never want to travel again. It really was a great trip, though, and I'm so glad we got to spend so much time with my family, especially Kendall and his family, since it had been so long since we last saw them and we're not sure when we'll see them again. That being said, I'll start.

Okay, so I left off on my last post with the night before we left for Florida, so I'll start with that Wednesday morning, August 20th. We woke up early and drove down to San Diego for our flight that was due to leave around 10am. Of course, we found out our flight was delayed due to heavy fog in San Francisco (before you get too confused, yes, our layover was in San Francisco and no, I don't know why because San Diego is closer to Orlando so going direct would have made more sense, but that's air travel for ya), so we sat around in the airport for awhile until finally boarding a flight that left around 11:30. Luckily, our flight to Florida was delayed as well, so we had half an hour to get food before boarding. We arrived in Orlando around 11pm EST, tired and ready for sleep. Come to find out, our car seat was missing, so we got a loaner and rented our car (which cost a ton more than we were originally quoted) and arrived at the resort in Davenport around 1:30am.

Tropical Storm Fay was in full swing when we arrived and stayed for quite a few days, so our main activities on the trip were playing games in the resort room and watching the Olympics. I'm actually kind of glad, though, as we really wouldn't have been able to afford going to Disney World or anything like that. So we just enjoyed the family time together, laughed at Damon's antics, oohed and aahed at Audrey and Joshua, went out to dinner a couple of times, and ate a lot of food. My uncle and his family came out for breakfast on Saturday morning...it was good to see them. I can't believe that my cousin has six kids! The weather did clear up enough by Monday for us to go to the pool, and Tuesday we went to the Atlantic Ocean. Here's a picture of Joshua and Audrey...they were so cute together, and I think being around Audrey really helped Joshua learn a few things (like crawling faster, cruising around furniture, eating finger foods, etc):
Tuesday was actually our two-year wedding anniversary (yay!), so we celebrated by going to Medieval Times. We wanted to do something we couldn't have done in Utah, and this seemed like a fun thing. Our knight lost, but technically all of the knights lost because the captured prince defeated the evil green knight and ended up winning, so yeah. Here's a picture of the two of us in our super-cool blue crowns (I love you, Cody!):And here's a simply adorable picture of Joshua...I couldn't resist:
We left Wednesday, after spending a little while at Downtown Disney. There was a giant Transformer-looking robot in front of the Lego store, so we had to take a picture: The flights back weren't very exciting...Joshua was a perfect angel. We even got a few comments that he was the best baby ever, since he didn't have any bouts of crying. I will note that our car seat was lost yet again, though, so we had to use another loaner. We arrived back in Corona late and tried to get some sleep before leaving for Utah the next morning.

Oh, our trip to Utah...little did we know when we left that Thursday morning that we wouldn't get home until Saturday. I won't go into all the details, but suffice it to say that our car started overheating about 25 miles north of Las Vegas, so we sat in the hot afternoon sun for about two hours until finally getting towed back to Vegas. Once we got the hole in the radiator patched, the car wouldn't turn on or even hold a jump, so we called the only people we "know" in Vegas, our sister-in-law Shelly's aunt, who came and rescued us from the casino parking lot where we had pushed our car after it died on the street. We ended up spending two nights at the Seastrands', who were are ever so grateful to for helping us out. Plus, they have a pretty cool movie selection that was very useful as we sat around waiting to hear about the car. It was finally fixed by Saturday afternoon (needed a new radiator, a new alternator, and a new tire to replace the one that was pretty bald), and we started back up the I-15. Things went pretty well after that...we got a flat tire around Nephi, but luckily we had the spare. We arrived at our house in Orem around midnight.

We thought things would end there, but of course, Monday afternoon, we had ANOTHER flat tire (and since it was Labor Day, no tire shops were open). We hadn't even been able to replace the flat from Saturday, so we drove the car home on the flat tire and Kirsti drove us the next morning to buy two tires. Things are good now, though it seems like our car is on its last legs and we're dreading any future repairs. Oh, and they finally delivered our car seat to us a week after it was lost (they flew it up to SLC and had planned to deliver it on Friday, but since we were still in Vegas we had to reschedule). What drama...

So, that's our trip! Like I said, I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm complaining, but it really was just a loooong trip full of silly little trials that required much patience. It's good to be home.

Back from the abyss...and Happy Birthday, Cody!

Well, we're back! We've actually been back for almost two weeks, but I've been catching up at work and post-poning what is going to be quite a long blog post. First of all, today is my dear sweet husband's 31st birthday! Can you believe he's 31? I can't, and neither can he. He really doesn't look that old. But anyway, I hope he has the best birthday every and knows that I love him oh-so-very much. And Joshua loves you too, Daddy!

So, where do I start? How about at the beginning...well, we left for CA around 9pm on Wednesday, August 13th, in a car packed full of suitcases, snack food, a stroller, a carseat, three adults and a baby (Brianne came with us--meaning that she was the third adult, not the baby). The trip was...long. Joshua decided to choose this road trip to HATE his carseat, and so what should have been a 9 or 10-hour trip ended up being around 12+ hours. Apparently he also decided to become severely attached to his Mommy, which was cute at first but quickly proved to be a little annoying. For example, I couldn't sit in the back seat with him, because he'd just reach out to me, crying and screaming for me to hold him. I ended up driving most of the night, and luckily adrenaline helped me stay up once we arrived at my parents' house in Corona on Thursday morning. We spent that day getting things ready for Kirsti's wedding and reception, which was to be held in my parents' backyard. Thursday night was her bridal shower, where she was indeed showered with gifts and we played fun games and stuff. My good friend Wendy Weitzel came, too--it was so good to see you, Wendy! And Rich was there for part of it, which was weird...until we learned that he was only there at the request of the shower organizers to play a game with Kirsti.

Friday morning, we (meaning me, Kirsti, my mom, Brianne, and Rich's sister Becca) went to get our hair done at a fancy salon. I wish I had a picture of how my hair looked that day, but alas, Cody and I were NOT the best picture-takers on this trip. We have to rely on others now for our memories. Kirsti's hair and makeup were beautiful, which makes sense because she was the bride--she was supposed to look beautiful. Then again, she pretty much always does. Anyway, so we all drove down to San Diego that afternoon, left Joshua with his auntie and soon-to-be aunt-in-law (is that what Becca would be?), and entered the temple. The sealing was wonderful. Kirsti of course cried afterwards as everyone hugged them as we left the room. Pictures afterwards were good...there were tons of people milling around everywhere. We actually got a picture of our ENTIRE family, which hasn't happened since--I think since before my mission, actually! But all five of us original Burr children were there, our four spouses, two "grand"parents, and five little cousins. I need a copy of that picture. As we were walking around outside the temple, I was struck with memories of our wedding day two years before at that very temple...sigh. I'm so glad that my little sister chose to be sealed and was worthy to enter the house of God. And I wish her a long and happy life as Mrs. Richard Lee.

Joshua freaked out again on the trip back to Corona that night, but at least we got In 'N Out as some sort of consolation. The next day included feverish amounts of working to get the backyard in order for the reception, which turned out to be BEAUTIFUL. Seriously, my parents went all out. New grass, a gazebo, tulle everywhere, pretty lights, tables and gorgeous centerpieces...and Becca and her mom even figured out how to write "Kirsti & Rich" in lights, which was displayed on the slope near the gazebo. It was such a fun evening, and Kirsti was once again a gorgeous bride. One of my favorite memories of that evening, though, was my nephew Damon (he's 3) having the time of his life with the fruit from the chocolate fountain. He had a little collection going on his plate of chocolate-covered fruit kabobs, and his clothes were absolutely covered in chocolate. It was adorable. The little program was sweet--Rich sang a song for his mom (some kind of inside family thing), and Brianne, Becca, and I sang "When You Say Nothing At All", for which I accompanied on my guitar. Then Kirsti and Rich had their dance, then Kirsti and my dad danced, then Rich and his mom, and then...I think we went upstairs to put Joshua to bed. But seriously, beautiful reception. I'm kicking myself for not taking any pictures of my beautiful sister and her handsome husband (I hope that's okay for me to say that about my brother-in-law)...if I do get some, I shall post.

We spent three more days there in CA, enjoying the nice weather and gearing up for our flight to Florida. I do have a few pictures of a few things we did, all taken with my cell phone. First, here is Cody with the crab he found when we went to Newport Beach on Monday, August 18th (Joshua's 8-month birthday!):
And here is Joshua curiously looking at the starfish that Cody found...he called it "Daddy's Traveling Animal Show":On Tuesday night, my brother Dana and his wife Melissa invited us over to their house. It was good to spend time with them and their kids, Luke and Sydney, as they weren't going to be able to come to Florida with the rest of the family. Kendall and his family were staying with them, and so I took the opportunity to introduce Joshua to his cousin Audrey, who is just 3 and a half months older than him:
Aren't they cute together? I think Joshua weighs more than she does...which I guess is as it should be, seeing as how he's the boy. Anyway, this blog post is proving to be WAY too long, and I really do have work to do, so I think I'll leave this for now and post about our Florida trip and the excitement we had on the way home for another day. Thanks for reading!

I love to see the temple...

I'm going to deviate a little from my usual subject matter on this blog and talk about this past weekend. As many of you know, my sister Kirsti is engaged to be married this Friday. Because she plans to be sealed to her fiancé Rich in the San Diego Temple, she was allowed the privilege of joining the ranks of endowed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her first time through the temple was on Saturday, and Cody and I were present. It was amazing.

First, let me say that I just love the temple. Cody and I used to go every week back when we first got married. Then our outings decreased once I get pregnant (I wasn't always up for a temple session...those of you that have been pregnant before can relate), and now with Joshua it's even harder to get there due to the need to arrange for a sitter. But it was incredible to go on Saturday and once again feel the Spirit in the House of the Lord. What made it even more awesome (and I mean that in the literal sense of the word) was that my little sister was there, too. I have a special bond with my sisters, and to be able to attend the temple with one of them was such a special experience for me. My parents were there as well, which was also wonderful. I think Kirsti had a very good experience.

I remember when I first went through the temple. It was July 26, 2003, and I had just received my mission call a week earlier. It was at the Los Angeles Temple. I don't remember a lot of specifics from the whole experience, but I do remember what it felt like to pass through the veil and be welcomed by my parents and other friends who were present in the Celestial Room. I imagine that's what heaven will be like--and if so, I can't wait to go there. It just made me feel so happy. And now I know what it's like to be on the welcoming side of things. It's wonderful. I just kept looking, waiting, eager to see Kirsti and give her a great big hug. I hope this doesn't sound morbid, but I am so excited to die and then be able to welcome family members into heaven (assuming I make it there, of course). It's just a very special feeling, and nothing compares to it.

I look forward to the day that Brianne will enter the House of the Lord as well and be endowed with celestial power. I can't wait to be there with my entire family. Those of us who are endowed will all be there this Friday, barring any complications, to witness our dear sister Kirsti be sealed for time and for all eternity and to welcome Rich as a new member into our family. Then, one day, the same will happen for Brianne and then we can all be there. Oh, I just can't wait. Families really are what the Plan is all about, after all. And I'm so glad to know that I can be with mine forever. =)

Random Tidbits of Our Life

I fail at keeping my blog updated. I am so sorry! Life is absolutely insane these days, though, with me trying to put in extra hours at my BYU job so I can take two weeks off starting next week--and that's on top of working my normal 8 hours at BYU and 2 hours of transcription work. Yeah, I'm crazy. But we do have a few things to report.

The first piece of news is: JOSHUA IS CRAWLING!!! He started doing it last Sunday, and he's getting better and better at it every day. He's still wobbly, and he can't go really far distances (like all the way across the room in one fell swoop, I mean), but we're just amazed that he can move forward in the first place. I have a couple of cute videos of him crawling on my cell phone, which I will post as soon as I figure out how to get videos from my new phone to the computer.

I do have a few pictures I wanted to share =) First one is a picture of my boys saying goodbye to me from the top of the stairs as I leave for work...sorry that it's a little blurry: This next one will probably embarrass Cody, but I thought it was funny. So, Cody doesn't like to shave. He has really sensitive skin, and shaving really irritates it. This means that there are often long stretches in between when he shaves (he's lucky he's not a BYU student). Anyway, I think it had been about a week since he had last shaved, and he finally realized he'd put it off for too long when he saw the redness on Joshua's cheek after Daddy gave him kisses. You can't see it incredibly well, but there it is. Poor kid:
I absolutely love this next picture. I was talking to Kirsti on speaker phone and Joshua was sitting on my knee. When I told Kirsti she was on speaker phone and Joshua was there, she said, "Hi, Joshua!" And he looked directly at the phone and gave this huge smile! I got him to smile again and wouldn't you know it, there he is showing off his two little teeth. It's probably the best picture we have of his teeth as of yet:
We have church from 9-12 in our new ward, and this means Joshua often doesn't get his morning nap (I did get him to sleep after feeding him during Sunday School, but within 5 minutes of sitting down in the classroom, he woke up. I think it was just too noisy). So Daddy and Joshua took a nap together, which I thought was just adorable. Oh, and for those who are curious, Cody is wearing what's called a CPAP machine, which treats his sleep apnea and helps him breathe more easily, which in turn helps me and Joshua sleep better because he doesn't snore anymore. See, everybody wins! Aren't they cute?:
Life, as I said before, is just making me go crazy these days, so I apologize for not keeping things updated on here. Hopefully things will calm down once we go to CA and FL. Until next time!

We are now Oremites!

Well, we're all moved! Tons of people came to help us last weekend, and we are so very grateful to all of you for your assistance. We literally could not have done it without you--so thank you, Mickie, Steve, Kirsti, Brianne, Becky, Jeshua, Aliesha, Greg, Rich, Christian, Thomas, and Molly (please forgive any misspellings)...I hope I didn't forget anyone! If so, I'm sorry and thank you as well! We love our new home and are eager to get everything unpacked, which is hard to do since we still have all the demands of work and Joshua. Anyway, Joshua seems to love our new home, as evidenced by the following photo:This is in the front room. You can see into the kitchen over Joshua's right shoulder, and over his left shoulder and past the boxes, you can kind of see the hallway leading to the bedrooms. Once we get everything set up, people should come visit us! I promise we're fun to hang out with!

Joshua is becoming more difficult to feed now, as he grabs for the spoon and shrieks in protest when you take it out of his mouth (I think the rubber tip is soothing to his gums...could he be getting another tooth?). Anyway, he gets really messy, but he's still cute. Here he is with sweet potatoes all over everything--he loves sweet potatoes, just like his mommy! Not so much like his daddy, though...
And, finally, he still likes to hide under the couch, as evidenced by these pictures Cody texted to my cell today:
We have such a cute, photogenic baby. I'm amazed that he smiles in almost every picture we take of him now. And that laugh! I really need to get a video of him laughing and post it. Cutest thing ever. Anyway, it's almost time for me to go home to my family, so have a great weekend, everyone! =)

We've been busy...

We move tomorrow! Hopefully that will explain why it's been two whole weeks since I last posted. There's just so much going on, what with packing, work being a little on the busy side, my transcription work, Cody having a couple of job leads (nothing definite yet, though), and Joshua becoming increasingly mobile. Speaking of Joshua, he's changing so much these days, learning more, and bringing us more and more joy every day. He can get up on all fours, but isn't quite sure what to do once he's up there. It seems like he'll probably be crawling within the next month. He's actually learned how to scoot himself backwards, which sometimes gets him into hilarious predicaments, like this time when he scooted himself almost completely underneath the couch:Anyway, I thought I'd talk a little bit about what's been happening with us, and there are plenty of pictures of Joshua peppered in to make things interesting. First of all, last week I was able to get together with some friends from my freshman year at BYU. Laurel and Amy and I got together first--we all had babies within a month of each other. Then, a couple of days later, Jenna and her almost-2-year-old son Daniel came into town, so we got together with Laurel again. It' s good to see old friends, isn't it? Here's a picture of our babies from the first get-together; they all fell asleep in the car on the way to lunch. On the left is Amy's Madelyn, my Joshua is in the middle (I hope you could recognize him), and Laurel's Noah on the right:My transcription work is going pretty well. I have anywhere between an hour and two hours of work a night, and I'm learning a lot and helping my family earn some money as well. My company had their summer party last Friday, and so we went (mainly for the free food). Interesting side note: while there, we just happened to sit down the table from a family from Fortaleza, Brazil. The president of the company, Kent Gale, was talking to them in Portuguese, and so I joined in the conversation. Come to find out, Kent was actually my mission president's companion in Brazil 30 years ago! It's a small world after all...oh, and here's Joshua chewing on the seatbelt from his stroller. He seemed to much prefer that to the squash we fed him later that night:
This picture doesn't really have a story, but I thought it was cute so I'm throwing it in there. I've started bathing Joshua every night as part of a bedtime routine to help him wind down. It seems to be helping, and I usually have him in bed by 8:40 or 8:45, allowing me plenty of time to get my transcription done. Anyway, as I was lotioning him up one night and flipped him over to get his back, apparently the hooded towel came with him, creating a sort of cape-look:
Like I said before, Joshua is just growing by leaps and bounds. He's thriving on solid foods! He's practically become a pro. So far, we've given him rice cereal, carrots, squash, and peas. Next on the list: green beans. Hopefully he takes to those as well as everything else. We may start introducing fruits for breakfast next week, I'm not sure. Oh, and new development: he's getting another tooth! Cody noticed it last night...it just broke through. I tried to get a picture of the tooth he got a couple weeks ago. I'm not sure if you can see it very well, but it's there:This last picture is just fun. Cody and I got new phones a few weeks ago because our old ones were starting to die on us, and my new phone has a flash for the camera. Result: sometimes Joshua can't keep his eyes open long enough. I promise he's not drugged up or anything, even though it may look like it:That's about it for us! In a couple of days we'll be Orem residents. Exciting stuff. Hope everyone has a great weekend, and I'll post more once we get settled in at our new place! =)